Hopefully that will eventually lead to freezing or lowering the student fees. Winning helps solve that of course, but also doing better in raising money and getting people involved in the program helps.
Sucks for the University, but they are the one’s who offered the contract. Pay those guys the money they are owed. Fire them if you don’t like it.
I wish I could be that bad at my job and get a $56K bonus.
UConn, while also facing similar issues to every member of FBS and especially G5, is a unique case in many respects.
They are paying for P5 level Football, Men’s Basketball, and Women’s Basketball on a G5 budget. They got used to those P5 checks and didn’t adjust when those quit rolling in.
They also have to factor in one of the most expensive costs of living in the nation.
Just two examples.
Until I read it here, I assumed UConn’s men’s and women’s programs made buckets of money. The men’s program has won 4 NCAA titles since 1999. The women’s program has dominated women’s basketball and when they lose it makes headlines. They have no major league competition during football and basketball season.
If they leave the AAC for the Big East, Mike Hill will earn a lifetime contract if he could secure that opening for Charlotte. The league needs someone within the footprint who is known to the current schools. Charlotte fits those qualifications.
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Think Mike is already sending out feelers?
I don’t see how we secure that spot, assuming it becomes available, while we have a 15,000 seat football stadium.
I also see ECU being a big road block as well.
Since the two mid-Atlantic options are us and ODU, not sure which ECU would prefer. ODU is in their primary recruiting grounds but we are in a major recruiting area for them as well.
ECU has a vote, but I can’t believe they carry much weight in the AAC. They have not performed well since they joined the conference, and there are no other redeeming qualities for Greenville, NC. Like Boone, they are an outpost where people drive back on Saturday’s for football, but live and work in the Triangle.
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I know for a fact that when we started football we discussed a glide path into what was then the BE, so those schools were interested at that time. We also know that at least one other BCS league at the time was looking at us. This was publicly discussed by the Mac Everett group.
I would be shocked if Hill isn’t in touch with them. I’d be shocked if Mike didn’t make some of these phone calls well ahead of even taking the Charlotte job. I would imagine in his due diligence on the role he wanted to know what our conference options are and as connected as he is probably was able to make some inquiries under the radar. I also wouldn’t discount the influence of ESPN being here.
If stadium size is the only roadblock, that is easily fixable. We have relationships with many of those schools and while ECU might have issues with us, their current budget issues would welcome an instate in conference rival.
Y’all might think the AAC is a reach for us right now. I actually think then opposite, I think the AAC is pretty reachable, I and I am betting Mike, have eyes on bigger fish.
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At this point, this window absolutely must be top of mind for Hill.
clt would settle for the aac, but the long term destination is SEC
Houston wants to join the Big 12 in the worst way. If the Big 12 decides to re-expand to 12 they could take 2 AAC schools or take Houston and BYU. That opens 2 slots in the AAC if Connecticut drops to 1-AA football. (3 if they take 2 AAC schools and UConn drops to 1-AA.)
If a school had a football team for 20 years and had a 15,000 seat stadium, that would be a deterrent to inviting that school to join a better conference. If the school’s program was still in its startup phase and had access to a 73,000 seat stadium, that would alleviate the concerns.
I have heard if we decided to expand our stadium that if work started as soon as the season was over it would be complete by start of the next season with all the prework done while building the existing footprint.
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clt says we can practice for the access bowl next fall while construction is under way
That’s true. 1st level expansion requires zero demo.
They could add the missing concession pod before this fall, I’d think.
Do they need to expand bathroom capacity before they add seats?
We never had much detail provided, but I don’t recall there being any other ground level pods in the plans that would be bathrooms. I think bathrooms on the expanded level were expected.
Renderings http://gmine.blogspot.com/2010/09/trustees-see-new-stadium-renderings.html?m=1
I see Houston getting a PAC 12 invite before a Big XII invite. The PAC likely wants to get into the central time zone. The Big XII does what Texas wants and they likely don’t want Houston in the same conference.